Sorry I haven't posted in a while - the big team went home on Sunday and so up 'till then I've been quite busy with that! But while a bigger team does take a lot more organising, they also get A LOT done! It's been great to see them all working away and connecting with local people in the various projects we've taken them to help out in. And seeing the way this has certainly left and impact on some of their lives too, has been so rewarding! So I'm sat here, eating a big pot of chinola (passion fruit - of which I won't be eating it all today!), my face screwing up at the sourness of every mouthful, though the taste I love; thinking over the last 2 weeks about what has really stood out to me... I think one of the little things that has stuck in my mind has been Meekah (really not sure how to spell that!). Meekah is a beautiful girl. She is one of, I think, 10 children and is looked after predominantly by her older brother John (Megan, a missionary who works he in their village wrote this about John back in 2012!). I don't know very much about the family situation at all, but I do know that John loves her and she loves him. And EVERY time I go to their village, as soon as Meekah sees me, she runs up and jumps into my arms! She will then go everywhere with me, hold my bottle for me, want to be thrown around in the air by me... until eventually I run out of energy (or arm strength!) and we sit down and play less energetic games! She is absolutely great - I look forward to seeing her every time we go there!
Then one time with this last team, we went and she was there but she was tired. And this big lump had grown on the side of her head, quite quickly in the last week. And it was hurting her. She came into the feeding programme but was very clingy and wouldn't go and eat, so I took her on my lap and fed her food until she refused anymore, saying she was too full. Then I went off to do something with the team and when I came back she climbed back into my arms, and while we were waiting around she fell fast asleep. Don't get me wrong, I loved the cuddles, but this tired, kind of lethargic and hurting Meekah was nothing on the excited always-ready-for-fun one! So we decided to take her and John to the clinic on our way out of the village. John went and got changed and got her some nice clothes (looked like her Sunday whites!) and we got them on the bus and went out. Claire gave John money for the travel back and he went off and took her to get checked out! We went back the following week and she was napping while I was working. Then John took me to see her; she was lying down on some cushions just outside their house. I didn't want to wake her, but while I was just talking to John out there she opened her eyes and looked up, so I went over and laid my head down next to hers as she reached out her little arm around my neck. I asked her if she was OK, and she said yes. And as she woke up a little more she climbed into my lap as I rocked her and we talked a bit. The lump was completely gone and she had no more pain! And by the end of this week, she was starting back at school and LOVING it!!! Now I don't know if the doctors' really helped, or whether it would've just got better on its own, but even just to know it wasn't majorly serious and that both the lump and the pain would go away was a good thing - a quick doctors' checkup and some medicine - something I've certainly alwats taken for granted. But with the cost of being seen and the cost of travelling; it's not always that easy for people in poverty. I've done a lot of thinking recently; trying to work out how a problem like poverty can even begin to be solved. But I'm reminded of how Jesus acted when he was on the earth - he didn't raise his hands in the air, say a pray and eradicate blindnes (for example) from the earth. He walked about; interacting with real people, caring about them, teaching them, and helping the person in need he found in front of him. Maybe if we all did that, the problem of poverty wouldn't be such a massive one to think about tackling.
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AuthorI'm a recent Cambridge Theology graduate now studying for a Masters in Biblical Studies and blogging about all sorts of things! I'm interested in faith, Church, theology, social action, the great outdoors and being creative, and all of those things - along with many more - come through in my posts!
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